I have received the 2013 Postgraduate Student Research Excellence Award from the UQ Psychology Head of School, Virginia Slaughter. As a result, I was invited to speak to my colleagues about my research, which was great fun.

“The prize is awarded for outstanding published research as indicated by the quality and potential impact of the research itself, as well as the relative standing of the journals within the field in which it appears.”

As winner of 2011 Trans-Tasman Three Minute Thesis Competition (3MT), I was asked to judge The 2013 University of Queensland final. It was nail biting, but the winner was Michael Thai from the School of Psychology—he was fantastic. Runner-up and People’s Choice was Timothy Brennan from the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology.

Please join me in congratulating Matt Thompson who has been awarded a UQ Postdoctoral Research Fellowship commencing in 2014. As we are all aware, these awards are extremely competitive and Matt’s success is an indicator of the very high quality of his research – Professor Virginia Slaughter, Head of School.

US Ambassador Bleich has selected two of my photographs for display at the US Embassy in Canberra. The competition, “America Through Australian Eyes” received more than 180 submissions from across Australia and my photographs below, “The Great Dividing Range” and “Bushfire Glow,” were two of the eight selected.

Our Flashed Face Distortion Effect was featured in the Brain Games program on the National Geographic Channel. Unfortunately, they disregarded the fact that the faces don’t need to be presented in the periphery for the effect to work (as we described in our paper), but we are happy to see the effect being enjoyed by a wide audience.

Registration for “Think101”, a free online course on the science of everyday thinking, is now open. The course is offered through edX, the not-for-profit massive open online course (MOOC) provider founded by Harvard and MIT. Register here.

The first practitioner-based UQ Forensic Reasoning Workshop was held at The University of Queensland on 25-26 March. We welcomed Bruce Comber from The Australian Federal Police, Duncan McCarthy from the Queensland Police Service, Sophia Arulappu from the Victoria Police, Cameron Forsyth from New South Wales Police, and Gary Edmond from UNSW Law. Me, Jason Tangen, Rachel Searston, and Ruben Laukkonen from the Expertise & Evidence Lab presented our latest research, and we spent two days devising future experiments on expertise, discussing various training and recruitment practices across the states, and developing a contemporary model of expert testimony. Click for more.

Fresh off a plane from the US, Jess and I travelled to Canberra for the Fulbright Dinner at Parliament House. We celebrated the 2013 Scholars and caught up with past US and Australian Fulbright recipients. Unfortunately, it was the day of the Labor leadership spill, so Prime Minister Gillard didn’t make it to dinner, but it was great to chat to US Ambassador Bleich again. Here’s some of what he had to say:

“The Fulbright Program was the first treaty between our nations, even before our ANZUS Alliance. And Fulbright’s spirit remains the bedrock of our relationship. We are bound by common values. In a world with billions of people, there will never be enough laws, or guns, or fences, or bombs to keep us secure. It is the social ties – the faith that other people value their lives and their children and want peace just as we do – on which humanity’s future rests. These things are not legislated – they are formed through what Fulbrighters do – the thousands of interactions and tender connections among people.”